A blog dedicated to my personal rants, books, and the world of fiction, movies, video games and everything in between. Not to mention Batman

Monday, June 17, 2013

Just Watched The Man of Steel

First of all, let me start of by saying that the Man of Steel is a successful reboot of an iconic character, the 125 million dollar opening reaffirms this.

The movie is dark, gritty and full of Super action, though CGI heavy, it is worth your buck. Its the action Superman deserves and the one he needs right now. The changes to characters are minuscule and do not register in the over all scope of the movie and the larger DC universe. For example, Jimmy Olsen is now Jenny Olsen, and from what I could make out, shes not even a photographer, shes an intern. Lois Lane takes her own photographs in this one. And this movie also answers the age old question, If Lois Lane is such a good reporter, a Pulitzer Prize winning one even, how does she not figure out Clark Kent is Superman?

This was also a question Batman has asked himself, If Jim Gordon is such a good detective, Why hasn't he figured out who Batman is yet? Well, the answer in that case would be much simpler, because he doesn't want to, he supports Batman's actions and wants some kind of plausible deniability when push comes to shove I guess. But moving on.

Spoliers Ahead

She does, In the beginning of the movie, Lois Lane is rescued by Clark Kent and he uses his heat vision to cauterise her internal bleeding caused by the security drone of the Fortress of Solitude. She then goes on a painstaking journalistic endeavour to track down her "Rescuer".

This movie kind of plays like Spiderman 2, where the entire world knows who Superman really is, in fact, he outright tells a US Army colonel who is trying to track down Superman's relocated Fortress of Solitude, that he was raised in Kansas, now in a town with a population of 3 people, I don't think it will be very difficult for the military to zero in on the Kent farm. Now if the military has such a lead, do you think, it will be a stretch for Lex Luthor to figure out who he is? I'd like to see them tackle that in the sequel. Which is another question, this movie was a toe in the water, it has been said that there will be a Man of Steel sequel, and I'm guessing the setup to the Justice League will be tackled in it.

One of my favourite scenes in the movie is the final showdown between Zod and Superman, where the latter pleads with the former. In this scene, I think Henry Cavill pefectly captured Superman,
Zod is trying to kill a family of tourists with his heat vision, while Superman has him in a headlock. Superman pleads with him, don't do this, please stop. The emotional angst and the inner turmoil of what Superman will have to do if Zod doesn't stop was captured beautifully. In the end, Superman has to make the tough choice, he kills Zod. Yep, Superman kills.

This development makes me all the more excited for the Justice League movie, because now, Batman is quintessentially, THE MOST IMPORTANT member of the Justice League, especially with his stand against killing, no matter what the stakes. And now that Superman has killed once, it will make him all the more vulnerable. And it he will be all the more reluctant to kill again. It would be great o see that dynamic, where Batman can literally accuse Superman of being a murderer if he pisses him off or the more likely where Batman defends Superman's actions by saying that it had to be done. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

The wait maybe a real long one if DC and Warner Bros. need to get it right.

The most important thing they'll have to get right is the Batman reboot. Which may need a three year hiatus atleast. In the meantime, they can get intro movies for the others, like The Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and The Martian Manhunter.

I guess, they could introduce the Martian Manhunter in the Man of Steel sequel, just like they brought Nick Fury and the Black Widow in Iron Man 2. Th rest of them will need standalone movies. No word from Warner Brothers on those yet.